Wireless/5G

Report: Wireless LAN market to expand 57% in next 4 years, driven by 802.11ac

Aug. 1, 2013

Dell'Oro research forecasts WLAN market to expand 57% by 2017, says key trends to monitor are service provider Wi-Fi, 802.11ac and cloud-managed systems.

Matt Vincent

In a newly released market forecast report by Dell’Oro Group, overall Wireless LAN (WLAN) market revenues are forecast to approach $12 billion in 2017, well over 50 percent greater than 2012 revenues. Key trends expected to drive this growth include deployment of Service Provider WiFi (SP WiFi), the 802.11ac upgrade cycle, and cloud-managed WLAN; with additional influence coming from consumer video over WiFi, as well as the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend.

“Enterprises now see wireless LAN access as critical, yet historically have installed wireless as an overlay network that is separate from the Ethernet network,” explains Chris DePuy, vice president at Dell’Oro Group. “As new, higher-speed 802.11ac wireless systems are installed, we expect a growing number of companies will be re-considering the interaction between Ethernet edge switches and enterprise WLAN devices. This provides both opportunity and risk for enterprise edge vendors,” adds DePuy.

In the report, there is a forecast chart for cloud-managed equipment and cloud-managed services revenue. Also included in the report are estimates on total SP WiFi units and revenue forecasts, and an analysis.

Resource: Technical guide outlines BYOD best practices

More: BYOD policy guidebook

The Dell’Oro Group Five-Year Forecast Report offers a complete overview of the Wireless LAN industry, covering the Outdoor Mesh Nodes, Enterprise, SOHO product segments and the Service Provider WiFi market. Tables contain manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, and unit shipments by the following wireless standards: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11a/g, 802.11n and 802.11ac. To purchase this report, please contact Julie Learmond-Criqui, call +1.650.622.9400 x244 or email [email protected].

About the Author

Matt Vincent | Senior Editor

Matt Vincent is a B2B technology journalist, editor and content producer with over 15 years of experience, specializing in the full range of media content production and management, as well as SEO and social media engagement best practices, for both Cabling Installation & Maintenance magazine and its website CablingInstall.com. He currently provides trade show, company, executive and field technology trend coverage for the ICT structured cabling, telecommunications networking, data center, IP physical security, and professional AV vertical market segments. Email: [email protected]